Reality

The kids talked me into buying them some of that horrible sugary cereal for them the other day, and on the back of the box, they had this humorous display:

One of the biggest things that has made breakfast cereal such a staple in the Standard American Diet (or SAD for short) is how they A) put little toys inside with the cereal and B) put such fun and interesting games all over the box. They do the same with Happy Meals, and now they have to outlaw them to get people to stop buying them.

This box made me chuckle enough that I had to take a picture of it. I thought I'd share it with you all, and then move on, but the little guy decided that it was actually worth cutting it out and assembling it. To make sure that our house didn't wind up like the one on Better Off Dead:



We poured all the cereal into a backup container.

And then Little got to work cutting out the pieces.

At first, he thought maybe he would just skip cutting out the eye opening, and make them virtual reality goggles after all. He even colored in a nice virtual reality that you could experience with your glasses on.

In the end, however, he decided it wasn't all that fun to wear a mask that made it so you couldn't see anything. Instead, he cut out the eye hole, and experienced the beauty of actual reality. I tried it too. It was pretty impressive. Everything looked so realistic; I was blown away.

And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street

I did a post last week about the silly advertising strategy that I saw on a car on the freeway on the way to work. This week, I saw something all new and unexpected:

I had to wonder what was going on when I saw this one. A tank being towed through town on a semi trailer. It wasn't a military truck, just a civilian model. Was somebody getting themselves some firepower just in case this coronavirus thing gets as bad as the Captain Trips one did? I guess the military could use civilian transport for hire when they need things done that they don't often do. I don't know. I just found it to be an interesting sight. And to think I saw it all on I-69.

A Milestone Worth Mentioning?

Just the other day, I did my post for the first week (or so) worth of March, and I had to mention the fact that I made it over 100,000 words on my YTD tally.

Well, yesterday, I made it to another milestone that I figured I'd get on here and brag about, because I'm proud of myself for sticking it out this far. Yesterday was my 50th day in a row of writing. Here's my chart to prove it:

The last time I missed a day was the 19th of January, and I remember how stupid missing that day was. I totally could have written that day, but I thought that I should try to get some sleep instead, and laid in my bed for hours unable to do so, endlessly thinking, "I should get up and go write since I can't sleep...but it's really late, so I gotta stay in bed and get to sleep." If I'd just gotten up and written, I'd be another eighteen days further along. This post would have run a long time ago, and been forgotten by now.

I'm here to say this important truth, you can do whatever you put your mind to. I'm a total piece of crap shlub. If I can write 1000 words a day for fifty straight days, then you could do at least as much, most likely more. Go for it, and most of all keep with it. Improving yourself is always worth it, however you choose to do that. Progress is always better than entropy.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Music Problem

I've been meaning to do this post for years. I was just thinking of it today, and figured this time around, I'd actually do it. Several times over the years, Rish and I have complained about the utter failure of the Marvel Cinematic Universe wehn it comes to establishing a musical legacy. Everybody knows the Star Wars theme song, or the Indiana Jones theme song, or the Harry Potter Theme song, or the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song and so on and so on. But the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the single highest grossing movie franchise in history. How is it possible that there is no music that sticks out in memory from all of those movies.

They started back in 2008 with Iron Man, and now, many years later, there are 23 films in the series, and still nothing to write home about. I tried to see if other people were talking about it, and found some videos on YouTube on the subject with some really interesting insight into the film scoring process and industry as well. This first video by Every Frame a Painting talked a lot about the problem, and blames it on a number of problems, but mostly on temp tracks. Watch it, it's pretty interesting.

Dan Golding had a response to Every Frame a Painting, not necessarily debunking him, but taking it even further. It's not just temp tracks, but also computer assisted composing, where certain things work best, and therefore lend to music sounding very similar to everything else, thank you Hans Zimmer.

But, then comes Julien CF Durand with this last video in response to the other two. He again doesn't refute anything the others had to say, but he says that the real problem is the complete lack of repetition of the themes from film to film.

I have to admit that I totally agree. Then there's this video from HelloLillyTV, that rebuts the assertions of the first video that there is nothing memorable when it comes to Marvel movies. There's the Avengers theme! People know that one. Why do they know it? Well, as Julien CF Durand said in the last video, it's all about repetition which is lacking not just from Marvel movies, but their advertising as well.

They all have a point. Some of the music in Marvel movies isn't memorable. Hans Zimmer did screw movie music up in horrible ways. Marvel movies do need to repeat their music more often, and use it in the advertising more often. I wonder if anyone has made a video about the biggest missed opportunity in Marvel movies. You see, all of these characters appear in each others movies left an right. There is a cameo of one hero or another in pretty much every movie, with Avengers movies assembling them all in one. How amazing would it be if each character brought his theme along with him for his appearance. Does Marvel not own the rights to their own music or something? Why don't they bring those themes over from film to film. One day, by chance, I stumbled upon this video, and seeing it made me cry. It was the kind of thing that I wished had happened all along. A YouTuber took the helicarrier scene from Avengers, and re-edited the music so that each hero's theme played when they were onscreen.

Okay, it might be a little heavy handed. You probably don't have to use the themes that often, but he had to do that to fit them all in during the time alotted. Even then, it still works.

Also, the guy cheated a little. He used the theme from Iron Man 3 for Iron Man in this movie, which hadn't been written yet, because the movie wouldn't come out until the next summer. He also used the theme for Thor 2, which also wouldn't appear for even a little longer. Worst of all, he used the theme for The Agents of Shield TV show, which hadn't even been conceived of just yet. But you get the point, right?

Interestingly, Marvel did do that a tiny bit. Here's an example. This is the Captain America theme song composed by Alan Silvestri:

Now, check out this scene from Thor: The Dark World, where Thor has just sprung Loki from prison, and he is playing around with his illusions. Listen very closely when Captain America appears.

It's hard to hear, but that's the same theme playing in the background.

Their two biggest failings are not using the same song from the first movie through all of its sequels, and not using those themes in the crossovers. Marvel could have as many memorable theme songs as Superman, Batman, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Indiana Jones, and Back to the Future combined if they'd just stuck with the same theme song for each Iron Man movie and then used it in the Avengers movies, Captain America movies, and Spider-man movies that he made appearances in, and did that same thing with Thor, Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Dr. Strange, and so on and so on.

I guess they still could, really, but after 23 movies, and only one song that anybody could hum along to, it seems like it's probably too late. They do have good themes though. Check them out, here's a video that has all the themes in on place for you. You can go down to the details, and click on the time stamp to skip to the next one once you've gotten the gist of what the song sounds like if you want, or just give yourself an hour and fifteen minutes to enjoy them all.

Which is your favorite of the themes for the characters that have more than one? I personally like all the Thor movie themes, for example, but I think Thor 2 is best. Probably Iron Man 3 is best. Captain America 1 is my favorite. Agree? Disagree? Let me know.

Cool Hand Luke

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I finally gave in an bought this Luke Skywalker from the Galaxy of Adventures line. Not sure why, but it really appealed to me. I probably could have waited and got it on sale in a little while, but I just felt like buying something last night, so I indulged myself. Always a mistake but oh well. Maybe I just missed the great Luke I grew up with. I’m tempted to buy any version of Jedi Luke I see. #starwars #lukeskywalker #toys #toycollector #toycollection #toycollectors #actionfigures #actionfigure #actionfigurecollection #actionfigurephotography #actionfigurecollection #actionfigurecommunity #galaxyofadventures #lightsaber #returnofthejedi #returnofthejedinotriseofskywalker #jediknight #jediluke

A post shared by Bigg Anklevich (@biganklevich) on Mar 9, 2020 at 7:46am PDT

February...er, March Sweeps, Week One

I haven't done any sweeps updates since February ended, but that doesn't mean that sweeps ended. Rish has been updating every day still over at his blog, but I figured my time could be better spent putting effort into other things that have fallen behind in my life. However, once a week is definitely a possibility.

So, when I ended February, I gave myself some goals for March to live by. How is that going? Let's see.

First of all, my goal of 1,000 words a day remained. As well as my goal of writing every single day. Is that still happening? Well, here's my word count chart so far.

Yes, I have made it to 1,000 all eight days of March. So, that's going pretty well.

My other goal of getting my words done before I leave for work in the afternoon hasn't gone quite as well. I sit down at my computer each day as though I'm going to write, but I always find something else to work on or look at or play around with instead. I have written some words before leaving for work, but never once have I actually managed to write my full 1,000 before heading out yet. Instead, I've been writing much harder when lunch time comes around. I've managed to get my words written during my lunch hour almost every night. So, at the very least, that is a positive. I haven't been up super late much this week...minus tonight...don't look at the time of day that this post was published. I finished my words before coming home from work, I just did other things upon getting home, and wound up being up late.

I still need to improve with that goal, obviously. Let's see if I can manage it better in the upcoming week. I'm afraid it may not pan out. My kids are home for spring break this week, which means I will have little alone time to get work done. But I will do my best.

Lastly, there is my goal of beating last month's total of 33,603 words. Now, we're not at the end of the month yet, so I can't really report on this. I can only display my progress so far. In eight days, I've written 9,153. I don't think that's too shabby. I still feel like this will be an easy goal to achieve, because I have two extra days this month. I'm already 1,153 words above my 1,000 a day. So, as long as I write for all 31 days, I'm bound to make it. The key is just making sure I keep up with that. Here's my progress bar for how that goal is coming, though.

9153 / 33604 (27.24%)

27% of the way there. Eight days is 26% of 31, so I'm doing just fine.

There's one more thing that I wanted to mention. On Saturday, when I wrote my 1,199 words, something fun happened. My total word count for the entire year ticked over into the six figures. I wrote another 1,096 today, so my word count on the year now sits at:

That just seems pretty darn amazing to me. Before now, my best single year for writing was my 43rd trip around the sun, when I wrote 90,036 words in one year. In four months, I've surpassed that, and am well on my way to tripling it. That is something that blows me away, one because it's such a high number, but even more importantly, two because I totally believe it to be not only possible but nigh on inevitable. When it comes to writing, I've finally turned a corner that I don't think I will reverse back away from again. As someone who has lost and gained weight off and on a few times, believe me, that means a lot. Now I've just got to make sure that I get my weight down in the same way that I got my writing up.

Make a manageable plan, and stick to it. Start small and increase incrementally until you arrive at the place you should be at, and don't give up. Even if you have hard days. Get right back to it, and you will succeed.

I need to read that paragraph to myself every day so that I don't forget it, and I apply it to all of my efforts in life.

Art Victory

The other day, I came home from work, and found my daughter still awake, furiously painting away at an art project.

"What are you still doing up?" I asked.

"I have to finish this," she said, "It's due tomorrow."

"Okay," I said, "But don't stay up too late."

I went to bed, and she stayed up...for several more hours I think. Sadly, I found out from her the next day that she had the date wrong. It hadn't been due the next day after all. She'd stressed herself out, and gone without sleep for nothing. Here's the picture she produced on that all-nighter:

It's a really fun picture. If you look really close, you can see a bunch of pop culture references in the background like the Starship Enterprise and a swarm of Daleks. She told me that there were many other things there as well, but she erased them so that she didn't have to color them in, because it was just taking too long.

A little while later, she went on a field trip with her art class...on a Saturday no less. It was the VASE trip. VASE stands for Visual Arts Scholastic Event, and there are 20 different regions that the state is divided up into. Each kid can enter a picture into the competition, judges look them over, and interview the student, then make a determination on who goes on to the state competition.

That morning, my daughter woke up feeling like garbage. She'd been sick the night before, and it hadn't improved overnight. I told her she should stay home from the trip, but she insisted that she needed to go. I think you had to pay for your bus ride to the event...but only if you said you were coming and then ghosted instead. So, she felt like she had to show.

I felt bad for her when I dropped her off at the school, but she powered through. She looked like she was doing better by the time she came home, but she probably wasn't, because she went up to her room and fell asleep for the whole afternoon.

The next day, I got an unusual call. It was a number that I didn't recognize. I usually don't answer calls from numbers I don't know. They're almost guaranteed to be telemarketers, so why would I? Telemarketers are pretty easy to spot, though, because their caller ID number always claims to be from my old area code. I don't get calls from random people in that area code. I have all the names and numbers from there saved in my contacts. Sometimes I get unrecognized number calls from the Houston area--doctors, dentist, school nurses and the like, though.

This time, it was a Houston number, but what doctor, dentist, or school nurse would be calling me on a Sunday evening at 8:00 PM? It wasn't the nurse, but it was a teacher.

"I'm your daughter's art teacher," the woman on the line said. "Can you go get her, and put her on speaker phone for me. I have to tell her something, and I think you'll want to hear this as well."

Well, this seemed like something special. I went upstairs and found her in her room with the lights off. I was afraid she was asleep again, but she was just watching a movie on her phone.

"I have some news for you, big news." her teacher said, "The results just came in from the Vase competition, and you are going to state."

My daughter smiled and thanked her teacher for the news. She was pretty subdued in her reaction, but she had been sick for a couple of days, so I didn't hold it against her. Her teacher went on to tell her that in April, the state competition would be held in either Austin or San Antonio, and the school would take her and all the other kids that had progressed to the state competition there, where they would stay overnight, and visit several of the sights while they were there. My daughter smiled bigger at the news of that opportunity. She also perked up when she heard that if she did well, she could win a scholarship. She's been working pretty hard to get good grades and earn herself some kind of scholarship for college, and here was an opportunity to get one for doing something that she would have done anyway. Perfect.

I'm pretty excited for her. I never got to do anything as interesting when I was in high school. Mostly because I was a pretty mediocre student. I would have loved to go on a trip like the one that is in her future. I hope she appreciates it, and has lots of fun.